Colombiana **

“Colombiana” is the latest from producer Luc Besson and director Olivier Megaton. Megaton’s credits so far include “Hitman” and “Transporter 3”, both of which were produced by Besson. This time their collaboration is not a success.

Zoe Saldana stars as Cataleya. She witnessed her parents get gunned down by an evil gun cartel when she was just a little girl. Eventually she grows up and becomes a ruthless assassin bent on destroying the Cartel that left her an orphan. This requires the help and training of Emilio played by Cliff Curtis. He starts by shooting up a random street to show her that she needs an education before she can learn the art of killing people. I didn’t really understand the lesson myself but that’s how it looked to me.

That’s about all the story we get before action sequences take over. The problem I had is that the most interesting parts of this story are skipped over so we can arrive at routine gun battles and fight scenes. I would of liked to of known more about her training and her relationship with Emilio and his mother, both of whom she loves very much.

We also do not learn too much about the villains in the story. They basically operate as targets to be slaughtered by Saldana one by one.

I was looking forward to this movie quite a bit. I was hoping for something like Besson’s own “The Professional”. Although Megaton brings a lot of style to the movie, he just does not have enough story to keep my attention for two hours.